Eastern Health still dealing with sterilization issues

Eastern Health is still trying to deal with the problem of stained surgical tools, almost two weeks after hundreds of elective surgeries were cancelled due to sterilization issues.

• 'Black film' on tools cancels 2 Eastern Health surgeries
• Cancelled surgeries resume in St. John's, carry a $1M tab

Six of its seven sterilizers are now back in operation, but the health authority says it continues to see intermittent staining and residue on surgical sets.

Eastern Health said Friday it's completed the majority of the surgeries scheduled over the past week, but that 12 surgeries were cancelled over the past three days after black film was found on the surgical tools needed for those operations.

There were 540 surgeries cancelled between February 12 and 22. Elective surgeries resumed Monday.

103 of the people who had their operations cancelled last week have now had their surgeries. 

Eastern Health said it will continue to use its Toronto-based supplier to clean its own and loaned surgical equipment. The Carbonear General Hospital and the Dr. G.B. Cross Memorial Hospital will also do additional reprocessing.

Eastern Health said that costs from the contamination, postponements and rescheduling will be more than $1 million.

Surgical kits can range from anywhere between $1,000 and $100,000.

Officials said they've already had to replace one $100,000 kit for a hip surgery because of the recent staining trouble. 

While it has a contingency fund of about $1 million, Eastern Health said it is looking to the government for the rest of the money.

As of Friday, Eastern Health administrators said they were still unclear as to what the main cause was for the staining issue that has plagued the organization for the past few weeks.